Weasley, Not Black
by Rumour of an Alchemist
Summary: Alternate Universe. Supplementary material to 'Saint Potter'. A glimpse into the life of Narcissa Malfoy and her family, and a look at the morning Narcissa takes her son to catch his first Hogwarts Express from platform nine-and-three-quarters. Warning! Characters who have diverged from canon. Author Notes slightly expanded Jaunary, 2013.


(Author Notes slightly expanded, October, 2012 and January, 2013)

Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter. I am not Leslie Charteris. I do not own The Saint.

Note: The following one-shot takes place in an alternate Harry Potter universe which was impacted by The Saint. In consequence, some of the situations which arise, and characters which exist, differ considerably from canon. This piece is supplemental to my 'Saint Potter' work, in which James Potter married a grand-daughter of Simon Templar, and Sophie Theresa Potter is known as 'The-Girl-Who-Lived'. This particular story is narrated from Narcissa Malfoy's perspective and concerns the background of some of the Blacks and Malfoys in this particular alternate universe, and what happens on September the first, 1991, when Narcissa takes Draco to catch the Hogwarts Express.

* * *

When Narcissa Black had become Narcissa Malfoy she had married first and foremost for love, for which she suspected her older sister, Andromeda, had never quite forgiven her. True, Andromeda's marriage had not been without a certain degree of affection, but Andromeda's husband had been a muggle-born from a practically penniless background, whereas Lucius Malfoy – handsome, charming, and from a rich and pure-blood family – had been all that a Black daughter could wish for.

Narcissa had become aware of her older sister's especial jealousy of the Malfoys when – towards the end of the war – Narcissa had borne Lucius a _son_ and heir, whereas Andromeda had only borne daughters by Edward.

Edward, however, came much higher up the Death Eater pecking order than Lucius, and in response to this latest 'provocation', shortly after Draco's birth Andromeda's husband had apparently used his influence as one of the most trusted and least suspected of the Dark Lord's lieutenants to ensure that the Malfoy wealth ceased to exist. It became, effectively, the Dark Lord's wealth. The Malfoys still owned the roof over their heads, but they were dependent upon the Dark Lord for a monthly allowance.

The situation had been barely tolerable, but quitting as a Death Eater had seemed likely suicidal at that time and so Lucius had muddled along, trying to do his best, until an extraordinary meeting with an extraordinary man had occurred, offering a faint gleam of hope.

And then, of course, had come the catastrophic end of the war – doubly catastrophic for the Malfoys because they no longer had even a roof over their heads, and the only muggles or wizard who might have put in a good word for them were either dead or had disappeared. With no financial means to pay the kind of 'fines' that rapidly became the standard of 'atonement' for anyone suspected of Death Eater crimes _not_ captured upon that fatal last raid (for which latter category no hope of fiscally induced pardon existed), the Malfoys had had to forfeit their home, to a greedy Ministry, to retain their lives and freedom.

They had had to abandon the wizarding world in disgrace, having committed that great crime which was unpardonable – being an old family that had become both homeless and virtually knutless.

It had been a long hard road back from there, and the Malfoys had chosen to remain amongst muggles, fearful of what the Ministry might do if they turned up in magical society again, at least to members of the older generation. Draco and his sister Elizabeth _might_ some day take a permanent place, or then again they might stay away and turn their backs on it, as that society had turned its collective back on their parents and grandfather Abraxas. Hah, that had been a slap in the face by the Malfoys for magical social conventions – naming their daughter after the current muggle queen, and breaking with their family traditions (although no doubt there would be some who told themselves they had named her after the first Elizabeth, who had been rumoured to have magical heritage). And Narcissa and Lucius hadn't even actually mentioned to their children that they were members of a relatively old family of witches and wizards, until at last and inevitably Draco's Hogwarts letter had arrived – and they had considered sending in a rejection to that…

_But_, there were old debts to pay, and questions left lingering unanswered by the events of Hallowe'en nine and three quarter years ago. It was necessary, unfortunately, that Draco attend at least one year at Hogwarts to discover what he could regarding certain matters. So there had been a frantic crash-course over the summer for Draco in the half-remembered minutiae from a decade earlier of magical society and etiquette, and in the basics of magic.

Excursions to Diagon Alley were kept to just the one shopping trip for a wand for Draco and to acquire his school supplies. Anything else had had to be done remotely, by intermediaries, and had proved slow and often inefficient. Narcissa and Lucius dared not show their faces to the wizarding public very often, not least in case it provoked Andromeda (who had somehow managed to attain the reputation of an abused and wronged heroine, and who retained a fraction of _her_ wealth and power) into coming after them. Andromeda's husband was in Azkaban, after all. _He_ had been found unconscious and badly injured in Death Eater regalia that Hallowe'en night in Godric's Hollow…

* * *

The morning of September the first, 1991, arrived and Narcissa and Draco had aimed to arrive for the train half an hour before departure, which should have left some leeway for accidents, but kept a need to hang around on the platform to a minimum. Lucius had been unavoidably detained at their Kensington home today on business, and was looking after Elizabeth who had had rather too much ice-cream at a party the preceding day.

Except, upon arriving at King's Cross, they had experienced some difficulty with getting on to platform nine-and-three-quarters, drawing odd looks from passers by, and when Narcissa had finally resorted to a short side-along apparition with her son, they had found the platform empty, with no sign it had been used since the midsummer Grindelwald war veterans' excursion to Ely.

At that point Narcissa had panicked and almost lost it. The tickets they had been sent had clearly stated that the Hogwarts Express was due to depart platform nine-and-three-quarters at King's Cross at ten forty-five on the morning of September the first.

This was September the first and a few minutes shy of half past ten, but there was no Express – or sign that it _had_ been here.

Clearly the Ministry or school had sent out the wrong information to the Malfoys and Narcissa's initial thought was that this was some unusually petty stroke by Andromeda – although Narcissa didn't want to believe her sister would try to interfere in _Draco's_ receiving a magical education, since he _was_ a pure-blood heir. Narcissa kept her suspicions to herself and hastily apparated herself and Draco to the closest public floo which she could recall the location of, and from there they had flooed to the Ministry, to attempt to discover what was going on. A casual conversation with a guard there, in the atrium, had revealed that the Express departed from platform three, _St. Pancras_, these days, that there had been some sort of mixup this year with the tickets, and that the Ministry had duly owled an update to all families it considered likely to be affected by the original misinformation.

Narcissa and Draco had hurriedly flooed from the Ministry to the connection installed for the day at St. Pancras, and made a mad dash for platform three, only to be held up at the barrier by a triumphant Molly Weasley, who took her time about checking Draco's name on her list.

Apparently the Weasley woman worked for the Ministry these days, and it was suddenly all too apparent to Narcissa just why the Malfoys hadn't been notified of the error on the tickets – and that it wasn't Andromeda who had been doing her best to ruin Draco's first trip to Hogwarts.

By the time that Narcissa and Draco had arrived on the platform, the Express was pulling out, and it was too late.

"So what now?" Draco asked his mother.

Narcissa glanced at the ticket and gritted her teeth.

"The guard we spoke to at the Ministry indicated that the route for the Express on the ticket is otherwise correct. So now we go back to the Ministry, and find out what steps are appropriate for joining the Express at Crewe. And Draco: We do _not_ give that Weasley woman the satisfaction of any uncivil response when we leave this station. She clearly intended to humiliate us, and we will not _assist_ her by acting inappropriately."

"Weasley woman?"

"That was Molly Weasley on the ticket barrier. Apparently she works for the Ministry these days, and I doubt it's much of a coincidence that we _weren't_ notified that the station information was wrong. At least _she_ can't let go of an old feud, it seems, and you'll need to be wary of any Weasley children at Hogwarts. Arthur was less… vindictive… than Molly, though, so it's possible that members of their brood may be level-headed, if they take after him – try to keep an open mind about them unless they show otherwise."

At least it was a Weasley against them on this occasion, not a Black, Narcissa told herself.

* * *

Author Notes: (revised, October 2012, January 2013 for more information on Lucius' latter days at Hogwarts and of circumstances around Malfoys losing control of their fortune in the summer of 1980)

In case anyone missed my opening note, a reminder that this is set in an alternate universe. It started to diverge from canon in the early stages of the twentieth century, and by the late sixties, when the Black sisters Bellatrix/Andromeda/Narcissa were attending Hogwarts, the ripples were starting to spill over into wizarding Britain in terms of the paths that witches and wizards took.

'Edward Black', Andromeda's husband is, loosely speaking, the equivalent of 'Ted Tonks' of the canon universe. He was (before he married Andromeda) 'Edward Tonks', but he chose to change _his_ family name upon marriage, desperate to try to escape his 'muggle-born roots' and very much wanting to buy into the prestige of the Black family.

Whilst Lucius Malfoy in this universe was a Death Eater, he never made it into Lord Voldemort's inner circle. He left Hogwarts under something of a cloud, having been provoked by a gang of Gryffindors (James/Sirius/Peter/Remus) into action which resulted in loss of his prefect status and near-expulsion during his seventh year, and the rivalry/jealousy on Andromeda's account of her sister subsequently hampered Lucius' rise though Death Eater ranks – especially since Edward was at least as fanatic and useful a supporter to Voldemort as canon Bellatrix. As in canon, Lucius and Narcissa had a son, Draco, in June of 1980. A couple of months after that Lord Voldemort attempted to seize Hogwarts during the school's summer holidays - the failure of which bid afforded Edward the perfect opportunity to do down Lucius 'for failing to recruit or at least provide adequate intelligence on the capabilities of the Snapes'. Shortly after the Battle of Hogwarts the Malfoys had to surrender control of the totality of their then finances to Lord Voldemort as reparation for the crucial part he decided that they had played in losing the battle.

After the Wizarding War ended and the Malfoys moved out of the wizarding world, Lucius and Narcissa had their daughter, Elizabeth. (Less time occupied with wizarding social functions and politics possibly contributed to this, along with the Malfoys being very much thrown closer together in their enforced 'exile'.)

In this universe the head of Magical Law Enforcement, at the time the wizarding war finished, Bartemius Crouch, figured that eye-wateringly large fines (moderated by reliable naming of other names) in exchange for pardons probably made better sense than Death Eaters bribing their way out of charges anyway. At least this way justice was 'seen' to be done, compensation could be directed straight to victims, and since Voldemort was gone some sort of rehabilitation could occur - well that was the _theory_ anyway. The most heinous of Death Eaters identified were not allowed to buy their way out of Azkaban (not so many of these were credibly identified, as Voldemort's inner circle didn't have dark-marks, as a sign of their Dark Lord's explicit trust in them) which was how Edward Black _did_ end up in prison. He was caught, dressed as a Death Eater, on a raid the Dark Lord personally led, but without a dark mark, which rather gave away just how important he was...

Those investigating goings-on in Edward Black's household discovered that his wand had been used to place an Imperius curse upon his wife, Andromeda, and it was assumed that she was an innocent victim of his doings. Especially since he didn't name her as a Death Eater when subsequently interrogated by the Ministry with Veritaserum.


End file.
